It was held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York.

Osaka arrived to the final wearing a black face mask bearing the name of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy shot to death in Cleveland in November 2014.

The tournament took place during the George Floyd protests, and Osaka wore similar masks for each of her other six matches, each with a different name of a Black American who died as a result of unjust violence from police or other citizens in the United States.

The 2020 US Open was the 140th edition of the tournament and took place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park of Queens in New York City, United States, where it has been held since 1978.

Five of the complex's 18 total courts, including Grandstand, the main stadium of the 2020 Western & Southern Open, which was held in New York City instead of its usual Cincinnati venue,[7] were not used for the tournament due to the lack of players.

[12][13] In the event a player was deemed a close contact of someone who had tested positive, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and New York City health officials initially stated that the player could continue play, but would be subject to "enhanced" health protocol, including daily testing and restricted access to facilities.

[14] On September 5, the USTA announced that health officials in Nassau County, where most players were residing in hotels, had issued 14-day quarantine orders "for all individuals who had prolonged close contact to a person who previously tested positive", thus impacting their ability to continue competing in the tournament.

COVID-19 precautions necessitated the cancellation of the qualification matches and the ATP and WTA rankings were the sole metric used to determine entry into the tournament aside from wild cards.

[20][21] This test also led to the forced withdrawal of the top-seeded women's doubles duo of Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic prior to their second round match due to potential exposure to Paire.

[34] Despite being seeded third and fourth, Williams and Osaka entered the tournament as odds-on favorites, having been given equal betting odds to win the title, followed by Plíšková and Kenin.

[42] The third round eliminated a further eight seeded players, most notably 4-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who fell in a fifth-set tiebreak to Borna Ćorić,[43] and 11-seed Karen Khachanov, who lost to Alex de Minaur despite the latter's second-set bagel and subsequent third-set code violation for racket abuse.

[58] The fourth round saw three more top-ten seeds fall, notably 2-seed Sofia Kenin, who lost to Elise Mertens,[59] and 6-seed Petra Kvitová, who was upset by Shelby Rogers.

[70] The seven masks bore the names of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Tamir Rice.

[70] Coming into the men's doubles tournament, the all-Colombian team of Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah held the top seed.

[75] The remaining two seeded pairs met each other in the semifinals, as 8-seed Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektić defeated 3-seed Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

Koolhoff and Mektić could not respond, and the second set ended in favor of Pavić and Soares, giving them their second and third Grand Slam doubles titles, respectively.

[78] Entering the women's doubles tournament, the top seed was awarded to Tímea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France.

Their match was awarded on a walkover to Gabriela Dabrowski and Alison Riske, and Babos would later refer to the decision as an "injustice", citing the numerous negative COVID-19 tests taken by both of the pair and the clearing of a male athlete in a similar situation the day before.

[86] The other two quarterfinals saw Marjolein Buis eliminate Dana Mathewson in two sets and Angélica Bernal defeat wild card entry Lucy Shuker in three.

The top seeded player, de Groot, did not give Kamiji much of an opportunity for the upset, taking both sets 6–3 and winning her third US Open title.

Four players took part in the tournament: 1-seed Dylan Alcott, 2-seed Andy Lapthorne, unseeded David Wagner, and wild card entry Sam Schröder.

In round robin play, Alcott topped the standings by winning all three of his matches, beating Lapthorne and Schröder in two sets and Wagner in three.

Alcott recovered with a second-set bagel to force the game into a third set, which was won by Schröder in upset fashion, 6–4, for his first US Open title.

Hewett and Reid faced Gustavo Fernández and Shingo Kunieda in the tournament's opening semifinal round, defeating them in two sets, while Houdet and Peifer took down Casey Ratzlaff and Joachim Gérard, also in two.

In the final, Kamiji and Whiley were able to outlast Buis and de Groot, winning both sets by a score of 6–3, and earning their eleventh Grand Slam title together.

The third set was played as a match tiebreak, which was won 10–8 by Alcott and Lapthorne to secure them the wheelchair quad doubles title.

In both singles and doubles, women received slightly higher point totals compared to their male counterparts at each round of the tournament, except for the first and last.

[116] Prize money for the men's and women's doubles competitions took big hits as well, as both winning pairs took home 46% less than last year.

[116] In the United States, ESPN held exclusive rights to the tournament for the sixth year in a row as part of an 11-year, $825 million contract.

[120] Prior to the broadcast of the women's singles final, Mariah Carey premiered the video for her song "Save The Day",[121] which was filmed in front of Arthur Ashe Stadium on the grounds of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and which features clips of past US Open champions Venus and Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens, and Naomi Osaka.